


Flint

by amaradangeli



Series: Sam and Jack Weekly Oneshot Challenge Submissions [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-15 23:51:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1323871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaradangeli/pseuds/amaradangeli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack is being a jealous jerk.  WOS Word/Phrase Challenge: Jealous</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flint

Jack tries not to roll his eyes as the new guy in the science department cracks some joke and waits for Carter to smile like a puppy waits for a scratch behind his ears.  Jack waits for the smile, too, knowing she’ll indulge him with that little smile that doesn’t even quite reach her teeth.

But then delight lights her eyes and she lets out a full on laugh that forces her to double over. Dammit but he wishes he could have heard what the guy said.

Instead he stalks off in search of pie and vows not to bother learning the kid’s name.  Sure it’ll irritate her, but he’s making a point – not that he’ll ever tell her what it is.

He’s eating his way through a garden salad he picked up after a slice of French Silk pie but only because Janet had caught him and he both wanted to forestall a lecture and still fit into his uniform pants – it’s been taking more and more crunches to work off the sweets. Then New Guy and Carter walk in and make for the Jell-O.  He can overhear snippets of a debate between blue versus green.

Jack’s eyes cast to the dish of blue Jell-O next to his salad.  Who the hell eats green Jell-O anyway?

********

On every planet she collects them. It doesn’t bother him so much when it’s little blond boys clutching handfuls of flowers or older boys who follow her around with dopey smiles on their faces.  It doesn’t even bother him when it’s stupid, brutish men that would never in a million years turn her head anyway.

It’s the soft, sweet ones. The smart ones. The ones with sharp, intelligent eyes who always look at Jack like they know something he doesn’t. And they’re probably right.

********

Sometimes Daniel looks at her with a glint in his eyes that makes Jack wonder if they scratch an itch or two together when things get to be too much.  They look good together and Daniel’s recently bulked up and cut his hair and is turning all kinds of heads.  Sam would like a head-turner.  She’s alpha – that’s how it works.

They tend to stand too close together for Jack’s liking.  Daniel will just reach out and touch her like that’s okay.  But then, for them he realizes, it is completely okay.  He takes a long pull off a too-hot cup of coffee when Sam’s fingers linger over the bones in Daniel’s wrist as they talk. Daniel reaches up and casually wipes a smudge of dirt off her face near the corner of her lips. Jack curses and stalks off not even looking to see if they noticed his outburst.

********

He doesn’t like the way the irritation crawls up his spine when he watches how easy it is for Sam to lean over and hug little Cassandra.  How when they’re playing cards, Sam will reach out and brush imaginary lint off the back of Teal’c’s hand.  The way she’ll casually swing her arm around Daniel’s waist as they walk down the hall.

The way she’s oh-so-very-careful not to touch him.

********

It only takes about three months of his surly attitude and hyperawareness of Sam’s behavior for Daniel to corner him in the locker room.  “What the hell is your problem lately?”

“Can it, Daniel.”

“No.  You’re being an asshole.”

“I’m always an asshole.” He shoulders his way past the man who somehow, sometime, got to be the more imposing guy. Younger.  Bigger.  Stronger. Fuck.

Smarter, too.  Because Jack makes it almost all the way to the door before Daniel says, “You think I don’t see the way you look at me when I talk to Sam? You think _everybody else_ doesn’t see you acting like a jealous lover? You’ve got to get a grip.”

Jack doesn’t even cast a glance over his shoulder before he slams out of the room.

********

Teal’c tries next and while he’s always been bigger and stronger, and while Jack has an absolute understanding that Teal’c will put him in his place in the most physical way necessary, Jack railroads him and refuses to talk about the rage that is threatening to burst out of his chest if he has to watch one more single, solitary man put a hand on her.

“I believe the common Tau’ri advice for someone in your situation is to go get laid,” Teal’c offers.

It takes everything in him not to throw a punch.

********

It’s days later on a mission when it all comes to a head.  Halfway through the watch he’s spent tossing small flintish rocks into the campfire, she plunks down next to him on a fallen log and hands him a cup of coffee. “I think we need to talk,” she says and waits for him to agree before she relinquishes the cup completely.

“It’s been brought to my attention that I’ve been an asshole lately.”

Carter stares across the fire, takes a sip of coffee, then nods.  “Yes, sir.”

He can’t help but chuff out a laugh. “So we’re speaking freely, huh?”

“Considering I’ve fielded more than my fair share of ‘are you sleeping with Colonel O’Neill?’ conversations lately, yes.  We’re speaking freely.”

He fiddles with the edge of his cup. “Only the guys have come to me.”

“Not the General,” she’s quick to reassure. “But pretty much any other man that’s said more than three words to me in the last several months.”

He draws abstract designs in the dirt with the toe of his boot.  “I know I should be able to, but I can’t help it.  Not right now.”

“It’ll take some time,” she reminds him. “The high priest said it could take as long as a year for the bonding powder to be completely eradicated from your brain.”

“And in the mean time you get the half of the mix that makes you more ‘agreeable’,” he nods.  “I know all this.”

“In their culture, the powders they gave us would be working together.”

“Yeah well, in our culture, they can’t.”

“So,” she says and switches cups of coffee with him because he’s not really drinking his, “here we are. If I promise to try to be less…agreeable…will you promise to be less…” she makes a rolling gesture.

“Of an asshole?”

She laughs.  “Yes, sir.”

“I’ll try, Carter. But I’m not making any promises. It’s hard enough to handle the usual level of jealousy.  This juiced up version is hell.”

She has the good graces to blush. “You know the…agreeableness…extends to you too, right?”

He raises his eyebrows at her.

“I’m just saying this hasn’t exactly been a picnic for me, either.”

“Yeah,” he says with a sigh.  “Okay.”

She gets up and heads off towards her tent. “Oh, and sir?” She stops and turns back toward him. “Do you think you could let Guy off the hook?  He’s a good scientist but he’s really scared of you.”

Jack feels the first genuine laughter he’s experienced in a long time bubble up out of his chest.

“What?”

“His name is ‘Guy’”?

“Yeah.”  She waits for him to elaborate.  “What?” she asks with exasperation.

He waves her off, “It’s nothing, Carter. Inside joke.”

She gives him a half smile. “We’re going to be okay?”

“We’re okay now, Major,” he says with what he hopes is aplomb.  “Go. Sleep. It’ll be your watch soon.”

“Yes, sir.” She says and disappears into her tent.

Jack looks down at the mostly empty cup of coffee in his hands – her cup – and finishes it in one big gulp, expecting the bitter blackness she prefers to the slightly sweetened version he always drinks but finds her cup had been sweetened too.  He’s not sure what, if anything, he should make out of that, but it makes the tight band around his chest loosen just a tad.   He tosses a handful of little rocks into the fire and watches the tiny fireworks.


End file.
